Crossing Over the Odds

At the core of the twists and turns in Maksim Mrvica's journey as a pianist, is a boy from Šibenik who loved the sound of the piano before he knew how to play it

- Koyyi Chin

Along the Adriatic coast of Croatia lies a medieval city that overlooks the clear blue sea called Šibenik. Lined with rows of terracotta tiles that glow a warm orange against the setting sun and threaded through by a series of cobblestone streets, this was home for classical pianist and crossover musician Maksim Mrvica.

But it wasn’t until he was eight that Mrvica came across his very first piano. While visiting his friend Aleksander, Mrvica seemed to be enamoured with the instrument, so much so that he asked his mother if he could enrol at the local music school. Despite having no real exposure to classical music at the time as friends and family were more inclined towards other genres like pop, Mrvica took to the piano with an exceptional alacrity when he began his lessons under his first mentor, Marija Šekso.

“The idea of being a pianist didn’t occur to me until I actually played the piano and attended my lessons,” says Mrvica. “None of the people around me were classical musicians or interested in the genre, but for some reason, I fell in love with it, unprompted.”

Fast-forward seven years later, Mrvica, 15 then, found himself hiding under a bomb shelter alongside his family as Croatia’s war of independence began to rage above ground. In an interview with Czech Radio, Mrvica recalled hearing sirens blaring, then the sounds of bombs and cannon fire going off in the distance. For a week, Mrvica and his family hid in their basement, unable to move for fear of the bombs that regularly fell across the city. He even detailed a terrifying brush with death, as a section of his family home was destroyed by several grenades with the family still inside.